Desirability function based optimization of experimental data for air-water spray impingement cooling

The current research copes with the optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficients of a square mild steel test specimen by spray impingement cooling. A laboratory scale experimental setup was developed at School of Mechanical Engineering KIIT University, Odisha, India to investigate the role of various process parameters to enhance the heat transfer from the surface of the heated steal specimen. The mild steel plates of dimension 120 mm × 120 mm, and different thicknesses of 4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm were used in the experiment. The effect of the process parameters such as thickness of the tested plate, nozzle to plate distance, air and water pressure upon the surface heat transfer coefficient (HTC) was optimized. The optimization of the controlling parameters was carried out by using the desirability functions. The Design Expert 8 software was used to analyze the experimental results. A new correlation was developed for optimization of the surface heat transfer coefficient.